Video: Fixing row height and column width

In this exercise, we are going to take care of the problems that weren't addressed, the issues that were not addressed by the application of the Table Style. Namely, the fact that the column widths aren't everything that they should be, and of course, the fact that the rows are too scrunched. By the way, if you are just joining us, you can open up a document that goes by the name, the simple name is Scrunched.indd that's found inside of the O6 Table Styles folder and I am going to go ahead and press the W key to get us back into the Preview mode, so we don't have all that other distracting stuff going on, all those hidden characters and guidelines and so on.

Like other page layout applications, InDesign allows users to control the appearance of every element on a page. It helps format elements with style sheets, which collect formatting attributes for easy replication. But that's where the similarities end. InDesign CS3 One-on-One: Style Sheets demonstrates why InDesign's style sheets are far more powerful than anything found in any other page layout program. Pioneering electronic publisher and author Deke McClelland goes to the heart of InDesign's style sheets, and discusses how they define and guide just about every other program feature. He covers how to format words, paragraphs, whole frames, objects, tables, and even entire stories with a single click. Exercise files accompany the course.

Fixing row height and column width

In this exercise, we are going to take care of the problems that weren't addressed,the issues that were not addressed by the application of the Table Style.Namely, the fact that the column widths aren't everything that they should be,and of course, the fact that the rows are too scrunched.By the way, if you are just joining us, you can open up a document that goes by the name,the simple name is Scrunched.indd that's found inside of the O6 Table Styles folder and I am going to go aheadand press the W key to get us back into the Preview mode, so we don't have all that other distracting stuff going on,all those hidden characters and guidelines and so on.

Now, I am going to switch to the Type tool, let's go and Zoom in just a little bit here.I will switch to the Type tool and then I will click anywhere inside this bottom scrunched table and I will press Ctrl+Alt+Aor Command+Option+A on the Mac to select the contents of the entire table.Now let's go over to the Table palette and it is this palette right here, that's how I can bring it up anyway.If you can't find the Table palette over here inside of your docking columns, then go over to the Window menu and choose,Type & Tables and then choose this guy right there, Table.

It does by the way have a keyboard shortcut as you can see, of Shift+F9.Alright, notice this guy right here, the guy that says 0p3, that guy indicates the height of the rows and what I want youto change it to- and I figured this out by the way, just by trial and error and you could find it out,if you wanted to match another table, all you would have to do is click in it, to see what the height of the rows areand you could then look over here inside the Table Palette and say, "Oh gosh!It's 1p4.7," so 1 pica, 4.7 points.

That's fine, you know that's a weird value, but still if it works, it works.So I'll go ahead and click inside the lower table.Once again, press Ctrl+Alt+A, Command+Option+A on the Mac and I've just entered that value, which was 1p4.7and then press the Enter key or the Return key on the Mac and low and behold, now Table Styles couldn't do that for me, what?That's what I am asking?You know, I had to do that manually InDesign really, really, just think about it, InDesign?Just think about what you made me do.

Alright, now let's go ahead and grab the columns, the columns are still a problem as well and if you wanted to click, again,inside the formatted table, you could see that this column measures 13 picas wide.This value right here indicates the width of the column.Then this guy also 13picas wide and this guy, also 13picas wide.Huey Lewis & The News is 13picas wide.Then we have 1985, that is 3picas wide whereas 19, the track number, is 3picas wide.So we here have three columns that are 13picas wide, two columns on the outside that are 3picas wide.

Once again, how hard is it InDesign, let's go ahead and click here in the name, notice where I am positioning my cursor,I am clicking above the word Name, just a little bit above it, inside of the cell and I am dragging over like so,in order to select the entirety of those three columns.Then I will click inside this value and change it to 13, you can enter 13p0 if you want to,but 13 by itself is enough like so, takes care of it.Then I will click above the word Track right there in order to select that column, and I will change it from 3p6 to 3p0and I'll click above Year and I will change it from 4p0 to 3p0 as well.

Now at this point you may think, "Okay Deke!You hotshot, you big complainer, you baby you-" I am going to go ahead and hide the Table palette by the way sowe can see what we were doing. "So you big baby, you went through all this winning about having to format the table properlyand it wasn't really that hard, but once you finished, it's still not formatted properly, check it out.I mean, disk one is nicely centered on the page and disk two is leaning over to the left.So how do we solve that problem, Mr. Whiner?"Well, I'll show you.

I am going to go ahead and grab the Type tool, now you may know if you have worked with tables in the past,you may know that they are really big characters, so that's the way that InDesign treats them.So for example, if I were to click after the 'o' in disk two,you can see that I get this fairly short blinking insertion marker, right?It's not all that tall, but if I press the right arrow key to advance down to the next line,look how tall the blinking insertion marker is.If I entered some text, you can see that it would try to appear in front of that table if it fit,but I entered too much text and it is not going to fit there.

Let's write the thinnest character, an I; that still doesn't fit.Alright, anyway, it would if there was room for it over there, it would try to fit in that space, but for some reason it's not.It actually has room to work, so I am not sure what it is up to, but this is a single big character inside of a paragraphthat is currently, if I go up to my paragraph specs here inside the Control palette,so I click on that backward P, you can see that my text is aligned left.That's my problem. All I need to do is align it center and it goes ahead, InDesign goes ahead and center aligns that tableand now, I press Ctrl+Shift+A or Command+Shift+A on a Mac in order to deselect everything on a page and you can seethat the bottom table now aligns properly with the top table here.

Alright, so just one other thing to do here. If you take a look at the 55-word review, you can see that it says,"Highlights highlighted below," and yet I haven't highlighted a darn thing.We will be creating the highlights to indicate what I consider to be the best songs on the CD, using a few spot applications ofyet another custom Cell Style beginning in the next exercise.

There are currently no FAQs about InDesign CS3 One-on-One: Style Sheets.

Learn by watching, listening, and doing, Exercise files are the same files the author uses in the course, so you can download them and follow along Premium memberships include access to all exercise files in the library.

Already a member ?

Learn by watching, listening, and doing! Exercise files are the same files the author uses in the course, so you can download them and follow along. Exercise files are available with all Premium memberships.
Learn more

Upgrade to our Annual Premium Membership today and get even more value from your lynda.com subscription:

“In a way, I feel like you are rooting for me. Like you are really invested in my experience, and want me to get as much out of these courses as possible this is the best place to start on your journey to learning new material.”— Nadine H.

Thanks for signing up.

We’ll send you a confirmation email shortly.

Sign up and receive emails about lynda.com and our online training library:

new course releases

newsletter

general communications

special notices

Here’s our privacy policy with more details about how we handle your information.

Keep up with news, tips, and latest courses with emails from lynda.com.

Sign up and receive emails about lynda.com and our online training library:

new course releases

newsletter

general communications

special notices

Here’s our privacy policy with more details about how we handle your information.